page_title: Wyatt Earp
section_title: Life after Tombstone
hierarchical_section_title: Wyatt Earp / Life after Tombstone
caption_attribution_description: English: Dodge City Peace Commission, early June, 1883. The men went to Dodge armed to support Luke Short in a confrontation with business interests that wanted to force him out of town. The title of "peace commission" (later applied to the photo) was ironic. Their presence did produce a peaceful resolution. According to a biography of Wyatt Earp by Casey Tefertiller, the photo was taken in the Conkling Studio at Dodge City in June 1883 and first appeared in the National Police Gazette on 21 July, 1883. From left to right, standing: W.H. Harris, Luke Short, Bat Masterson, W.F. Petillon. Seated: Charlie Bassett, Wyatt Earp, Frank McLain (possibly "M. C. Clark"; see Dodge City Peace Commission), and Neal Brown It's a "published pre-1923" historical photo, so the release should read that. Sbharris 21:36, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
context_page_description: Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an Old West lawman and gambler in Cochise County, Arizona Territory, and a deputy marshal in Tombstone. He worked in a wide variety of trades throughout his life and took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. He is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was the Tombstone City and Deputy U.S. Marshal that day, and had far more experience in combat as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier.
  Earp was at different times a professional gambler, teamster, and buffalo hunter. Over his lifetime, he owned several saloons, maintained a brothel, mined for silver and gold, and refereed boxing matches. He spent his early life in Pella, Iowa. In 1870, he married Urilla Sutherland, who contracted typhoid fever and died in childbirth. During the next two years, Earp was arrested for stealing a horse, escaped from jail, and was sued twice. He was arrested and fined three times in 1872 for "keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame".
context_section_description: The gunfight in Tombstone lasted only 30 seconds, but it ended up defining Earp for the rest of his life. His movements began to receive national press coverage after he killed Frank Stilwell in Tucson, and he left Arizona with his brother Warren, Holliday, McMaster, "Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson, and Texas Jack Vermillion. They stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico where they met up with Earp's friend Deputy U.S. Marshal Bat Masterson. Masterson went with them to Trinidad, Colorado where he opened a faro game in a saloon and later became marshal.
  Earp dealt faro at Masterson's saloon for several weeks, then left for Gunnison, Colorado, in May 1882 with McMaster, Vermillion, and Warren Earp. The Earps and Texas Jack set up camp on the outskirts of Gunnison, where they remained quietly at first, rarely going into town for supplies. They reportedly pulled a "gold brick scam" in Gunnison on a German visitor named Ritchie by trying to sell him gold-painted rocks for $2,000. Earp and Holliday had a serious disagreement when Holliday accused him of becoming "a damn Jew-boy", and they parted ways in Albuquerque. Holliday and Earp met again in June 1882 in Gunnison after Earp intervened to keep his friend from being arrested on murder charges which they all had pending against them for killing Frank Stillwell in Tucson. Earp saw Holliday for a final time in the late winter of 1886, where they met in the lobby of the Windsor Hotel. Josephine Marcus described the skeletal Holliday as having a continuous cough and standing on "unsteady legs".
  The San Diego Union printed a report from the San Francisco Call on July 9, 1882, that Virgil Earp was in San Francisco (receiving treatment for his shattered arm) and that Wyatt was expected to arrive from Colorado that day. Wyatt took a job managing a horse stable in Santa Rosa. Earp developed a reputation as a sportsman as well as a gambler. He was reputed to own a six-horse stable in San Francisco, although it was learned later that the horses were leased.
  Following Wyatt's return to San Francisco, Josephine began using the name "Josephine Earp". Josephine was Earp's common-law wife for 46 years until his death. Wyatt and Josie remained in San Francisco for about nine months until early 1883, when they left for Silverton, Colorado where silver and gold mining were flourishing. It was the first of many mining camps and boomtowns in which they lived. However, he still owned a house in Tombstone with his former common-law wife Mattie, who had waited for him in Colton where his parents and Virgil were living. During the summer of 1882, she sent him a letter saying that she wanted a divorce. She had met a gambler from Arizona and he had asked her to marry him. Earp did not believe in divorce and therefore refused, but she ran away with the gambler anyway. The gambler abandoned her in Arizona, so she moved to Pinal City, Arizona where she resumed life as a prostitute. She struggled with addictions and committed suicide by opium poisoning on July 3, 1888.
  Earp's friend Luke Short was part owner of the Long Branch saloon in Dodge City, but the mayor tried to run him out of business and out of town during the Dodge City War. Short appealed to Masterson, and Masterson contacted Earp on May 31, 1883. Earp and Josephine went with Masterson, Johnny Millsap, Shotgun John Collins, Texas Jack Vermillion, and Johnny Green to Dodge City to help Short, and they were sworn in as deputies by constable Dave Marrow. The town council offered a compromise to allow Short 10 days to get his affairs in order, but Earp refused to compromise. Short's Saloon reopened, and the so-called Dodge City War ended without a shot being fired.
caption: The "Dodge City Peace Commission", June 10, 1883; (L to R) standing: William H. Harris, Luke Short, Bat Masterson, William F. Petillon; seated: Charlie Bassett, Wyatt Earp, Michael Francis "Frank" McLean, and Cornelius "Neil" Brown
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